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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

The Tomb of Torghil the Demented

May 18-22

The action picked up where it had left off the previous session, with the party and Chuluun in Ophidia's lair beneath the Mask and the Mirror. Three Red Nails soldiers, who had apparently wandered into the brothel and heard the commotion below, stormed down the stairs and called out for Ophidia. Alayna answered that Ophidia was dead, and demanded that the soldiers stand down, but when she asked Amira to reiterate her order, Amira instructed the soldiers to attack, and attempted to escape. This was a mistake, as the three soldiers were so outmatched by Ulee and a brown bear that Erth summoned that none of the characters even needed to swing a weapon. After a failed attempt, Alayna successfully cast Dominate Person on Amira, who had just wriggled out of Hrolff's grasp, and then teleported upstairs to intercept the two surviving soldiers who had left their unfortunate companion to the tender mercies of the bear and dire wolf. Alayna bluffed the soldiers into surrendering, and the party installed Hussain as head of the Red Nails. Alayna ordered Amira to report to Bathcat and offer herself to him as a sex slave for ten days, thus ridding the operation of the cunning bard and making Bathcat very happy, and hopefully a bit more loyal.

Meanwhile, Inakai and Kier, who were resting in the tower, were attacked by two vampire spawn, who seeped through the cracks around the trapdoor in gaseous form and attempted to wrest the mirror from them. The fight was short and harrowing, but the ranger and the rogue easily prevailed. When the rest of the party returned to the tower, you discussed the incident and speculated that Bataar might be behind the attack. He has motive, as his trusted lieutenant, Dochin the Bloody, is apparently imprisoned within the mirror, and because Bataar is clearly hundreds of years old, he could very well be a vampire. Hrolff cast an array of protective spells on the tower to protect it from the undead and living alike, and the party enjoyed a two day hiatus, during which the characters rested and prepared spells.

On May 21st, the party set out for the tomb of Torghil the Demented and followed Chuluun to the secret entrance that he had spoken of, which was a narrow cave that led from the northern shore of the Isle of the Dead into a hidden, subterranean tomb. The tomb was a strange and dangerous place indeed, but thanks to the characters' quick reactions and Kier's trap-finding skills, the party successfully avoided two pit traps, a water-filled-room trap, and a compacting room trap. The characters encountered two stone golems in a room that was filled with petrified trees, but a few well-chosen spells and a Greater Fire Elemental that Erth summoned made short work of them. The party slipped past the golems as they battled the elemental, entered the lower level of the tomb, slipped through the compacting room, and encountered a former party of adventurers that Torghil had reanimated as corpse creatures.

The battle was long and difficult. A corpse creature sorcerer bombarded the party with fireballs and lightning bolts while an archer rained arrows on whatever characters remained visible. Torghil, meanwhile, who appeared to be a mummy, cast a strange assortment of spells, such as Transmute Rock to Mud, from a distance. The brave but hapless Chuluun and the noble Ulee fell to a rain of arrows, and others would likely have died had it not been for the healing spells of Hrolff and Erth. Torghil disappeared shortly before the combat was over, and once the party had vanquished the corpse creatures, it moved into the large room where Torghil had been, and discovered a hidden trap door that led to a treasure room below.

Kier agreed to investigate, and started down the ladder to find Torghil in the room, wreathed in writhing black tentacles. The demented transmuter cast Baleful Polymorph on Kier, which turned him into a frog. Inakai descended into the room while the rest of the party hesitated above, and managed to destroy the mummy with the new luckbow she had obtained from the corpse creature archer. Inakai put the unfortunate Kier into her pocket, and the party searched the treasure room. Chuluun had been right about the tomb containing vast treasures. The loot in the tomb amounted to a stunning 60,000 gps.